Meanwhile in Oakland….student in wheelchair beat by security guard

by sanjosebarstool

SF Gate – An Oakland High School security guard has been fired and charged with child abuse for allegedly handcuffing, punching and dumping a student out of his wheelchair, school officials said Thursday. Marchell Mitchell, 23, and a second school resource officer at Oakland High School were urging students who were running late to go to class about 9 a.m. May 19. Mitchell encountered freshman Francisco Martinez, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, officials said.

Mitchell ordered the student to move toward his next class, but the student “either refused to comply or was slow to do so,” PrincipalMatin Abdel-Qawi wrote in a letter to parents. Mitchell then took the handles of Martinez’s wheelchair and pushed him toward class, prompting Martinez to object and try to slap away the guard’s hands, officials said. Mitchell then handcuffed Martinez and continued to roll him, and the student turned around in his wheelchair and spat in Mitchell’s face, authorities said.

“The security officer then struck the student several times before dumping him from his wheelchair onto the floor, at which time another security officer intervened to restrain his partner,” Abdel-Qawi wrote. Oakland schools police investigated the incident and arrested Mitchell. Alameda County prosecutors have charged him with inflicting corporal injury to a child, a felony. He is free on $10,000 bail and is to appear in Superior Court in Oakland on June 16.

The Oakland Unified School District, which had hired him in November as a substitute security guard, fired him the day of the incident, said spokesman Troy Flint. “I’m shocked and deeply hurt by this behavior and apologize on behalf of the staff at Oakland High,” the principal wrote. “This incident is not reflective of the kind of culture we cherish at our school or how we treat one another.”

He added, “It was an aberration, but a severe one, and I assure you I’m treating this with the utmost concern.”

Might sound a little like Mark Cuban here, but I can see to some degree where this security guard is coming from here. Being an Oakland public schools security guard is probably top 5 worst jobs in the country, maybe even top 3. Mitchell probably gets shit on from all angles by all ethnicities, both male and female, on a daily basis and I would not be surprised if Martinez mouthed off on occasion to this guy just because everybody does.

That being said, he took down aggressively the one dude in the whole school who physically cannot fight back. Really poor judgement when picking out who you’re gonna snap on at your job but when people go apeshit and have had enough this rarely enters their thoughts. It’s really too bad we haven’t heard the security guards side on this because I would love to see his response to it. But really, come on man, dude is handicapped.